Aaron's First Job: Enter Steppenwolf
Aaron walked along the forest trail near Peace Village, in his new guild attire that consisted of a black jacket with golden fringe as well as black khaki pants. He kept one of his swords in his left hit and the other on his back, hooked through a belt loop. He was reading the job paper that he had taken off of the request board at his new guild. He was eager to show his skills to his new master a well as bring back money for the apartment he had rented with his girlfriend Elizabeth. He also had another paper in his hand that was a brief description of his target that he got from his guild master. It wasn't much, but it would help for the moment. That's when he saw him. A blue-furred wolf-man off the side of the trail, sleeping. He seemed almost like puppy. If it wasn't thanks to his humanoid build and clothing, one would have likely mistaken him for an actual wolf. He took a second glance at the poster just to make sure that this was his target. It was unlikely that it was anything else, but stranger things had happened so he needed to make sure. With his suspicions confirmed ad started to carefully walk forwards. Keeping a careful eye on every twig and leaf under his foot, as well as keeping an eye for a trap. The wolf-man suddenly stirred in his slumber. He sniffed the air, and his eyes shot open. Without moving, his eyes were already upon Aaron. A red mist suddenly filled the area. But it wasn't just mist. The Heat in the area suddenly became unbearable. The plants actually caught fire, and by the time the mist cleared, the wolf was already gone. Aaron smirked at the trick but being not only a fire mage, but a fire dragon slayer, he was used to the heat. Quickly he sniffed to air a bit to catch onto the sent with his enhanced smell. After he caught the sent he sprinted in the direction that the wolf-man had gone. After a minute of sprinting he finally caught up with the wolf-man to the point that he could see him. "Hey, slow down. I don't want to hurt you. Just talk to you." The wolf-man looked back at the man following him. He gritted his teeth in anger. "Dragon Slayer..." he murmured. He moved his hand towards Aaron before making a flicking motion. Suddenly, Aaron lost all motor control in his legs. He couldn't stand, and his feet buckled beneath him. He fell to the ground as the wolf continued to run towards Peace Village. It took him a few seconds to realize what had just happened to his legs. He looked down at his leg to see a small trail of blood and figured that it had been some form of needle that had been thrown at him. With this in mind he placed a hand over the wounds and a small green light escaped his palm and healed his leg. "God I love Green Fire." With that he decided that the best thing to do would be to stop the wolf-man before he reached the village. This he ran diagonal towards where his opponent was running and made a wide arc. He gathered up some flames from the nearby fires that started a to come from the forest that had been set on fire. When he could see the wolf-man he roses out his spell just Infront of him Inferno Dragon's Roar. The wolf-man turned around, just in time for the spell to hit him. But as the smoke cleared, he was unharmed. "You Dragon Slayers. You must think you're so strong. Do you know how many of them have tried to defeat me? They're just the Magic Council's lap dogs. Now then, why don't you leave me alone!" The wolf-man's body began to increase in size, vowing to be twice as large as any tree in the forest, moving his face in front of Aaron. "Begone! Hunt Breath!" He fired a blast of pure heat and wind, aiming to burn his opponent and send him flying backwards at the same time. Hopefully his sudden increase in size would deter him from further attacking. The best part of the wolf's Magic was that it was hot enough to harm Heat Slayers. Aaron watched as the man grew to be twice as tall as the trees, however this did not scare him as he had trained with a dragon in both their human form and dragon form. When he saw the wave of heat coming towards him he was going to breath in the heat, until he realized that this was a different type of heat and that he wouldn't be able to eat it. Thinking quickly on his feet he raised his left hand and a wall of black flames appeared in front of him. "Flames of Darkness: Black Fire" He then added in an extra push of magical energy so that the flames would be able to block the oncoming blast of heat. Once this had been done the black flames burned themselves out and dissipated. "Flames of Nature: Green Flames" He then shot his right hand forwards and several lines of green fire shoot towards the wolf-man. As the flames made contact with the wolf-man's body, they were immediately nullified. He noted that the flames didn't burn at all, so he couldn't absorb their heat, but the immense heat of his body had nullified their effects, preventing the plants this spell would create from activating as they were immediately incinerated. The beast's fist suddenly glowed in a brilliant red light, aiming his Lupus Blow towards Aaron's position. All the while, the true wolf-man had been moving, undetected away from the area. He was completely invisible, the heat and pressure he was utilizing masking his scent. "That should keep him busy for a little while," said the wolf-man. "I'm heading back to the guild." Despite looking at his back, it was likely that he had recognized the symbol. It was the symbol of Galdrabók, one of the guild's of the Toveri Alliance, which Dragon Gunfire was a part of. This beast's true name was Steppenwolf, and Aaron had been tricked. Aaron saw the giant wolf-man ready to attack and readied his own counter attack. "Inferno Dragon's Crushing Fang" His hand then became covered in bright red fire as he punched forwards colliding with the Lupus Blow, creating an explosion that picked up a lot of dust. Once the dust had settled the illusion had been dispelled and Aaron was standing there with several thoughts going through his mind. He could either continue after the wolf-man or go back to his guild with this new information. Deciding that the best thing would be to follow him and find out what was going on he started running towards Peace Village as fast as he could making sure he would beat his opponent there. Steppenwolf continued running. It wasn't long before he saw Aaron approaching behind him. "This kid is relentless." He touched his hand to the ground as he rank, causing it to melt to his touch. Following him would most certainly cause him to sink into the ground, and suffer burns, despite his Dragon Slayer strength. Aaron saw that they ground was beginning to melt due to the heat, even he was sweating from it, and he had trained in stuff like this before. With that in mind he knew that he had to think fast before something bad happened. He stopped running and looked around for a way to escape the ground. He saw a branch on a tree that looked sturdy enough. Deciding it was his only option he created green fire in his hand and shot it at the tree, creating a vine rope that he proceeded to ice to climb up the tree and escape the heat. He then looked around for more branches and saw that he could jump from a few of them. In doing this he was able to follow his target from above, at least, for the moment. Steppenwolf grunted again. He fired a blast of heat from his hand, aiming to incinerate a small group of trees in order to prevent Aaron from jumping on them. He made sure to time it just right in order for him to miss the next branch, and fall into the molten earth below. Aaron had no time to think as the blast of heat hit the branch he was jumping to. This caused him to fall down towards the molten earth. With a loud growl he knew that he had to do something big and drastic. Sweeping his right hand from left to right and his left hand right to left, he cast his next spell. Flame of Darkness: Black fire with this cast a wave of black fire hit the forest floor and began to spread out from where he was going to land. He then added in about a third of his remaining magic to the black flames in order to nullify the spell that had been placed on them. When he landed on the ground the black flames had burned out and the Earth was no longer molten. However he was starting to feel exhaustion kick in, not from the loss of his magical energy, but from the sheer amount of heat that he was feeling. Steppenwolf stopped running, sensing the magical energy that had been exhausted from his follower. "You Magic Council dogs, always coming to capture me. I have to say, you're the most persistent one. But with your level of magic power left, it should be easy to dispatch you, as you will not follow me home." Steppenwolf grabbed a batch of his hairs from his arm. With a quick motion, he threw them at his target. So thin that they couldn't be seen, and incredibly aerodynamic. His aim was to strike before he could attempt to attack again. Each needle would stick into his limbs, and, regardless of whether he knew how to remove them or not, would prevent him from moving his extremities for the next hour or so. Aaron couldn't see the needles, but from the last hit he had learned their scent. Using his reflexes he managed to roll to his left and dodge the needles staying on his needs for the moment. "In reality...You should think if a weapon that doesn't have your scent all over it to throw at me. Might make it make it harder to dodge." With a slow motion he stood up and looked at his opponent as sweat dropped from his face. "But for the record, I'm not from the council, I'm from a guild, this is just my job....My first one actually" "But your job was requested by the Council was it not? A member of a guild who does jobs for the council, is nothing more than a Council dog!" In a sprint so fast that seemed to disappear, he moved to deliver a swift kick to the prone Aaron's gut. His leg, having been hardened by his Hardening Magic, would've felt like iron plowing into his stomach. Aaron made no move to dodge the attack, he was too tired for it. Instead he let the kick hit him at full force. He grunted and coughed spit as the kick hit him but only fell to his knees as he grabbed onto the wolf-man's fur. "Thanks...I needed something to hold..." With some of his last remaining magic he cast one of his most versatile spells, Inferno Dragon's Scales" 'His body then became littered with dragon scales. Each scale glowed a bright red color and emitting fire energy. He then stood up and threw a punch hard into his opponents gut. The punch made contact, but Steppenwolf didn't flinch. "That punch was weak." He had hardened his body with his Hardening Magic to prevent the kinetic energy from his punch from harming him, so if anything he would've hurt his own hand. Using his Heat Magic he had absorbed the power from his Fire Magic. Steppenwolf went to grab Aaron by the head. "Now begone!" His aim was to slam Aaron's head into the ground, and knock him unconscious. In a last ditch effort Aaron drew on more of his magical reserves, leaving him with little more than a third of his magic left, but it would be enough. It wasn't that he was running low on his magic, it was that the sheer amount of heat was making him sweat more than he wanted, thus making him more tired. Once he was done drawing on his magic, he infused his strongest fire into his current spell. Thus his current red scales took on a shimmering new form. The scales covering him were now almost alive as they shifted colors randomly. With this he grabbed the wolf-man's hand and pulled the wolf man into him, slamming his glowing fist into his opponents chest much harder than before. This caused an explosion as his scales came into contact with he hardened fur. Steppenwolf's Hardening Magic and Heat Magic tried to absorb the damage from the punch, but it was just too much. He spit up, and flew backwards from the force. However, that was the first blow that he had taken during the entire, and he was still high on his magical reserves. He got back to his feet, looking up the Dragon Slayer. Aaron's scales were still active and glowing as rolled up his pant legs showing more scales and stood up from his knees and looked at his opponent all the while he rolling up his sleeves revealing more scales. "You know...you keep calling me a dog, but you know you are a literal wolf right?" With that he sprinted towards his opponent and threw a back fist with his right hand, towards his opponents right cheek. Steppenwolf dropped to all fours, his entire body glowing with the red energy from his Heat Magic. '"Amarog Blitz!" he exclaimed. At a rapid pace, he collided against Aaron's body, aiming to nullify the damage from his strike with his own kinetic energy, whilst simultaneously burning him. He immediately ricocheted off of Aaron's body, and onto a nearby tree, jumping off of it as well before it caught fire to strike him once again. He continued to bounce off of his opponent and the surrounding area in order to deal a series of attacks, with each successive blow further increasing his speed and power. Aaron tried to block and dodge a few hits but the speed increase quickly became to much for him and he took several of the hits. However he began to notice that his opponent was only controlling his trajectory, but not the speed. He quickly thought up a plan that he hopped would work. As the wolf made another pass he dropped to the ground on his back and kicked his leg upward aiming to slam the scale part into the wolf-man's head. As he did this he charged up a roar attack. The kick sent Steppenwolf into the air, but the power of his heat would likely still burn Aaron. The aura surrounding him disappeared as he deactivated the spell, as to not fly too high up. He noticed Aaron collecting his magic power into his mouth as he prepared his Roar. "How can he still have this much magic power? When I engaged him directly he was almost running on empty. It won't matter. Wulf Pack!" Suddenly he seemed to split into several different clones. Each one falling onto Aaron location. "Hunt Breath!" Each of the twenty clones he had summoned fired a breath of heat at Aaron, which would absorb the heat from his spell, and burn him severely after overpowering it. "You make a mistake Wolfie. ''I'm not running on empty, this damn heat is just stupid and makes me tired!" With that massive bluff being said he finished drawing his magic power and proceeded to roar out his strongest roar. It was a combination of his normal dragon roar and his '''Rainbow Fire'. The series of Hunt Breaths and the Rainbow Fire collided in an explosion of white light. It was too much heat for the Wulf Pack to effectively eradicate, but there were so many of them that the spell's equalized themselves. But when the dust cleared, the original Steppenwolf managed to get next to Aaron. From his finger, he flicked a follicle of his hair towards Aaron's arm, aiming to paralyze it, before flicking a series of hairs all over his body to completely nullify his ability to move. After being struck by the hair follicles he could do nothing but sit there. He internally growled at his inability to keep up with his opponent. 'If I was a little stronger...' He thought to himself. That was until he noticed something from behind his opponent, the forest had been set on fire. This had likely been due to the amount of heat that had been produced by both participants. The flames seemed to get closer, but not closer to Aaron, closer to Steppenwolf. He reabsorbed the flames back into his body, and let out a large sigh. "That paralysis will wear off in about an hour. Don't mess with me again. And tell those Magic Council ingrates not to send another mercenary. They know that I'm a mage of Galdrabók." He began walking away from Aaron, done with the battle. Aaron groaned, he was low on magic, low on stamina, and low on moral, but he couldn't let this happen. It wasn't in his personality to quit just because this happened. He decided that he had enough energy for one more trick. He hopped that it would work, but he was unsure of what would happen afterwards. The scales surrounding him dissipated and he let out a loud roar as he dug into the last amounts of his magical reserves to activate his dual element mode. Icefire covered him and froze and then burned away the hair's inside his body. Once this was done he quickly got rid of his dual mode and stood up weakly, drawing his sword. "Hey...im not...done with you...yet..." Steppenwolf turned towards his opponent. "Fall." In a split second, Steppenwolf appeared in front of Aaron, aiming a punch, enhanced with his Heat Magic and Hardening Magic, towards Aaron's gut. Aaron raised his sword and blocked the oncoming punch with his blade. The contact created sparks from heat hitting the blade. He then stepped to the right and slashed in an upwards arc with his blade. The blade merely clanged off of his body. Steppenwolf aimed to grab Aaron's face, and lift him in the air. "You know your cause is not just. Why do you not surrender?" "My cause is just....not to bring you in...but to be able to provide for someone I care deeply about...and I will fight to my dying breath...to make sure that she is safe." With that being said he growled loudly a shot his hand forwards aimed at the wolf-man's eyes. He could smell the smoke from the grass below him but needed to let it build a bit more. Steppenwolf's eye closed, and his fingers stopped on his eyelid. "You want money!? Are you serious!?" He threw Aaron away from him. "Follow me back to the guild. I suppose this would be the first time I've paid off one of my attackers instead of defeating them in combat." Aaron had to stop himself from laughing at his opponents reply. "Than this will be the first time I deny it I guess. I can't take your money, I have to earn it, if that means a few failed missions then I am willing to go through it. I am sorry for this trouble." Aaron decided that it was best this way and proceeded to sheath his sword and look around at which way would be best to go. The intense smell of smoke was clouding his senses at the moment.